His Bridge—but Still Called Another Name

Ed Koch at the April 11, 2011, event for the signing of legislation renaming the Queensboro Bridge.
Rob Bennett for the Wall Street Journal

By

Josh Dawsey and

Mara Gay

Feb. 3, 2013 10:07 p.m. ET

He was born in the Bronx, grew up in Newark and built his political career in Manhattan. But former Mayor
Ed Koch
held a soft spot for a bridge that went to Queens.

"My bridge," is what he called it after the city unveiled its new name in 2011, the Ed Koch Queensboro Bridge. But like many city landmarks given new monikers, the name hasn't quite stuck and was still unknown to some New Yorkers on Sunday, even after Mr. Koch's name and legacy were thrust back into the spotlight after his death Friday.

Queens resident Antonio Miqui appeared confused when asked about the Koch bridge. "What bridge?" he asked. Then he pointed to its steel beams and spires. "The Queensboro Bridge? Because that's the Queensboro Bridge. Maybe the 59th Street Bridge. I never heard it called the Ed Koch Bridge before."

New Yorkers have a particular loyalty to the old names of the city's distinctive monuments and streets, even after they have been renamed. No matter the signs, Avenue of the Americas remains Sixth Avenue in the course of most daily conversations, while new names for the Brooklyn-Battery Tunnel (Hugh L. Carey) and the Triborough Bridge (Robert F. Kennedy) have yet to widely creep into the city's lexicon.

"Half the streets in New York have another name on them, but we don't really call them that," said Kenneth T. Jackson, a professor of history and social sciences at Columbia University and the author of "The Encyclopedia of New York City." Over time, new names "sometimes stick," Mr. Jackson added. However, "it may take a long time."

To help the name change take, the city Department of Transportation has put up new signs referring to the bridge by its new moniker. And radio traffic reporters have begun using it more frequently. But there's still more work to do.

Naim Psm, a 26-year-old Queens student who immigrated from India, said he was taught to call it the Queensboro Bridge.

"It's the name people here know who don't speak English, Queensboro Bridge is the name they learn," Mr. Psm said.

What to call the Queensboro has been a point of contention for years. Manhattanites have long called it the 59th Street Bridge, a designation Simon and Garfunkel made famous in a song. That name irks some Queens residents, who see it as a snub.

Renaming the bridge for Mr. Koch was a divisive fight. A March 2011 Quinnipiac poll found 64% of New Yorkers didn't want the name changed. Several city politicians spoke against it at charged public hearings.

"If we want to honor Mayor Koch, and I think we should, we should name the municipal building beside City Hall after him. That didn't have a name already," said Peter Vallone, a council member from Queens, in a Sunday interview. "No one calls it the Koch Bridge in Queens."

A spokesman for Queens Borough President Helen Marshall applauded Mr. Koch's record as mayor but suggested that his name would be better placed on a Manhattan landmark.

"In Queens, it's the Queensboro Bridge...It's viewed as the front door to Queens," said the spokesman, Dan Andrews. "It's going to take a long time to catch on, because it's a long name. That's not really how New Yorkers speak."

Mr. Koch had said he was delighted that the bridge would take his name, but exactly why he loved it isn't clear. It is known more for its unrelenting traffic than its beauty. It does join Queens with the Manhattan congressional district he once represented, and he has been quoted calling it a "work-horse bridge," an image he identified with as a politician.

At the rededication of the bridge, Mr. Koch quoted "The Great Gatsby," saying, "The city seen from the Queensboro Bridge is always the city seen for the first time, in its first wild promise of all the mystery and the beauty in the world."

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